The marriage was not a successful one. The queen verbally feuded
with Henry's mistresses, in language that shocked French courtiers.
She quarrelled mostly with her husband's leading mistress, Catherine
Henriette de Balzac d'Entragues, whom he had promised he would
marry following the death of his former official mistress,
Gabrielle d'Estrées. When he failed
to do so, and instead married Marie, the result was constant
bickering and political intrigues behind the scenes. Although the
king could have easily banished his mistress, supporting his queen,
he never did so. She, in turn, showed great sympathy and support to
her husband's banished ex-wife Margaret of Valois, prompting Henry
to allow her back into the realm.

During her husband's lifetime Marie showed little sign of
political acumen or ability. Hours after Henry's assassination in
1610 she was confirmed as Regent by the Parlement of Paris. She
banished from the court his mistress, Catherine Henriette de Balzac
d'Entragues. However, not very bright, extremely stubborn, and
growing obese, she was soon entirely under the
influence of her maid Leonora "Galigai" and the latter's
unscrupulous Italian husband, Concino Concini, who was created
Marquis d'Ancre and Marshal of France, despite never
having fought a battle.

They dismissed Henry IV's able minister the duc
de Sully. Through Concini and the Regent, Italian
representatives of the Roman Catholic
Church hoped to force the suppression of Protestantism in
France. Half Habsburg herself, she abandoned the traditional
anti-Habsburg French policy. Lending her support to Habsburg Spain,
she arranged the marriage of her daughter, Elisabeth to the future Philip IV of
Spain.

The construction and furnishing of the Palais du Luxembourg,which she referred to
as her Palais Médicis, formed her major artistic project.
The site was purchased in 1612 and construction began in 1615, to
designs of Salomon de Brosse. Her court painter
was Peter
Paul Rubens.

Politics

Under the regent's lax and capricious rule, the princes of the
blood and the great nobles of the kingdom revolted, and the queen,
too weak to assert her authority, consented (15 May 1614) to buy
off the discontented princes. The opposition was led by Henry de Bourbon-Condé, Duc d'Enghien, who pressured Marie into
convoking the Estates General (1614-15), the
last time they would meet in France until the opening events of the
French
Revolution.

In 1616 her policy was strengthened by the accession to her
councils of Richelieu, who had come to the fore at the
meeting of the Estates General. However, in 1617 her son Louis
XIII, already several years into his legal majority, asserted
his authority. The king overturned the pro-Habsburg, pro-Spanish
policy by ordering the assassination of Concini, exiling the Queen
to the Château de Blois and appointing
Richelieu to his bishopric.

After two years of virtual imprisonment "in the wilderness" as
she put it, she escaped from Blois in the night of 21/22 February
1619 and became the figurehead of a new aristocratic revolt headed
by Louis's brother Gaston
d'Orleans, which Louis's forces easily dispersed. Through the
mediation of Richelieu the king was reconciled with his mother, who
was allowed to hold a small court at Angers. She resumed her place
in the royal council in 1621.

The portrait by Rubens (above right) was painted at
this time. Marie rebuilt the Luxembourg Palace (Palais du
Luxembourg) in Paris, with an extravagantly flattering cycle
of paintings by Rubens as part of the luxurious decor, called The
Marie de' Medici Cycle (detail from one
painting on left).

After the death of his favourite, the duke of Luynes, Louis
turned increasingly for guidance to Richelieu. Marie de Medici's
attempts to displace Richelieu ultimately led to her attempted
coup; for a single day, the Day of the Dupes, in November
1630, she seemed to have succeeded; but the triumph of Richelieu
was followed by her exile to Compiègne in 1630, from where she escaped to
Brussels in 1631 and Amsterdam in 1638.

Her visit to Amsterdam was considered a diplomatic triumph by
the Dutch, as her visit lent official recognition to the newly
formed Dutch
Republic; accordingly she was given an elaborate ceremonial royal
entry, of the sort the Republic avoided for its own rulers.
Spectacular displays (by Claes
Cornelisz. Moeyaert) and water pageants took place in the
city’s harbor in celebration of her visit. There was a procession
led by two mounted trumpeters; a large temporary structure erected
on an artificial island in the Amstel River was built
especially for the festival. The structure was designed to display
a series of dramatic tableaux in tribute to her once she set
foot on the floating island and entered its pavilion. Afterwards she was
offered an Indonesian rice
table by the burgomaster Albert Burgh. He also sold her a famous rosary, captured in Brazil. The
visit prompted Caspar Barlaeus to write his
Medicea hospes ("The Medicean Guest") (1638).

Marie subsequently travelled to Cologne, where she died in 1642, scheming
against Richelieu to the end.

"Marie de' Medici, all of whose actions were prejudicial to
France, has escaped the shame which ought to cover her name. Marie
de' Medici wasted the wealth amassed by Henry IV; she never purged
herself of the charge of having known of the king's assassination;
her intimate was d'Épernon, who did
not ward off Ravaillac's blow, and who was proved to have known the
murderer personally for a long time. Marie's conduct was such that
she forced her son to banish her from France, where she was
encouraging her other son, Gaston, to rebel; and the victory
Richelieu at last won over her (on the Day of the Dupes) was due
solely to the discovery the cardinal made, and imparted to Louis
XIII, of secret documents relating to the death of Henry IV." –
Essay Catherine de Medicis.